Shots Fired: Sam Francis on America's Culture War by Samuel Francis, Peter B. Gemma, ed., (Vienna, Virginia: FGF Books, 2006), 361 pages with index

Review by Ryan Setliff

Samuel Francis—Culture Warrior for the West

The late Samuel Francis gained renown for his trenchant pen, as one of the most provocative paleoconservative writers of his generation. He possessed the trenchant pen of H.L. Mencken and the political predilection Patrick J. Buchanan. In fact, Buchanan has written the introduction to the book. Always caring more about the truth than political correctness, Samuel Francis stuck to his guns, and lost his journalist job with the Washington Times over his politically-incorrect positions on immigration and racial issues in the United States. Francis was the bête noire to the establishment. He kindled the ire of neocon stooges and limousine liberals. His friend, Thomas Fleming, editor of Chronicles, remarked, “In so many ways he was the opposite of most conservatives. He rarely talked a good game, but he always played one.” Paul Gottfried proclaimed, “Francis was not a conventional movement conservative. He was too smart, too honest, and, as these essays indicate, too ready to state social truths that the media had worked strenuously to conceal.” A vociferous pundit, Francis has condemned “immediate gratification, indulgence, and consumption,” while making a clarion call for a “thunderous defense of moral and decent traditionalism.” This powerful anthology of writings, edited by Peter Gemma, represents some of Francis’ most intrepid writing.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and The Crusades), (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2008.)

Book Review by Ryan Setliff.

This is some truth-telling for those clear-headed enough to fathom the proposition that a devout Muslim is in fact a terrorist.

Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism by James Burnham. Hardcover: 320 pages.

Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism by James Burnham is a trenchant critique of modern secular liberalism, which Burnham characterizes as the ideology of Western suicide. "Liberalism," observes Burnham, "is the ideology of Western suicide." Why? Liberalism presents a false anthropology of human nature, seeing mankind as essentially good, but in need of liberation from social problems rooted in tradition, prejudice and ignorance. Liberalism appealed to the politics of guilt. Its ideological nostrums of egalitarianism and social justice meant the suicide of the West, he postulated, and the inevitable contraction of Western culture, power and social stability.

Robert Nisbet: Communitarian Traditionalist (Library of Modern Thinkers by Brad Lowell Stone. (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2000.) Hardcover: 170 pages. $24.95.

Book Review by Ryan Setliff

Robert Nisbet : Communitarian Traditionalist is a biographical sketch about the life and essentially the ideas of this influential twentieth-century sociologist and social thinker. Sociology has long been the mainstay of statist liberals and radical collectivists, and Nisbet is definitely out of touch with the quixotic or authoritarian mindset of most sociologists. Brad Lowell Stone's research is highly recommended and an excellent overview of Nisbet's social thinking. It is prudent to read Nisbet's books in tandem with Stone's biography. Stone points out some of Nisbet's influences, which are rather fascinating. Nisbet was weaned on the writings of Southern Agrarians like Crowe, Ransom and Tate who penned I'll Take My Stand in the 1930s. Nisbet also gain insight from the late conservative luminary Russell Kirk, having read his book The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot in 1953 the same year he wrote The Quest for Community. Since his assent in the 1950s, the late Robert Nisbet has gained recognition from both the Left and Right. Contemporaneously, his appeal is primarily with those on the Right whether traditionalist or libertarians. Nisbet's sociological thinking is aloof from the statist sociologists who often fail to distinguish between state and community. Essentially Nisbet made a dichotomy between monism and pluralism. The thought of Plato, Hobbes, Compte, Rousseau and Marx embodied monism, while Aristotle, Burke, and De Tocqueville represented the pluralist camp.

West, Jonathan, Tragedy of Freedom: An Indictment of Liberal Democracy and a Call for Patriotic Resistance, (West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2006.) $14.95.

Review by Ryan Setliff

An Indictment of Liberal Democracy

Author Jonathan West grew up in liberal family, attended college in Washington, DC, during the tumultuous Vietnam era. There he witnessed the subversion of America by New Left radicals who made heroes of our nation’s communist enemies. During this time, West underwent an epiphany and became convinced that the democratic system itself, which coddles subversives, is the culprit. West laments, “Liberals recreated the American soul, first in the media and then in the teachings and textbooks of America’s schools. By the time the Viet Nam war was underway, the real battle was already over.” The liberal intelligentsia succeeded in sapping “America’s children” “of their national character, their cohesion and vision. In place of these stood attributes of ethnic pluralism, leftist self-hate, and alienation” (p. 90.)